Hannah Simon
Student Sports Media
In 2016 the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference met and made a rule change for football and basketball for their roster and scholarship limits. The new rule change for the KJCCC allows both teams to have as many out-of-state players. Many people were concerned about the rule change, saying that Kansas kids would go over looked in the conference.
But for baseball, it is a different story since this change in rule did not change anything for baseball.
Since the beginning, baseball in the KJCCC has always been allowed to have as out-of-state player as the team wants. Even though baseball has always had this rule, it does not affect Kansas athletes. Twenty-one out of the 38 baseball players on the 2018-2019 fall roster are from Kansas.
“Every year is different when we look at players,” Head Coach BJ McVay said. “Some years it is good, {and} some years it’s not. We look for what is best for the field, not if they are from in-state or out-of-state.”
To McVay his job is to win. It does not matter if the player is from in-state or out-of-state. That is what Butler expects from him, so it is about wins and losses. Coach McVay has been coaching at Butler for the past 13 seasons. He started at Butler as an assistant coach for 6 season and accepted the head coaching position after head coach Steve Johnson accepted the head coach position at Fort Hayes State.
Over McVay’s coaching career he has had many successful seasons and players being named 1st Team All- Jayhawk Conference.
“We look for the best we can get,” McVay said. “It is hard to get the best of the best to come to Butler. When it comes to players that we are recruiting, we do not look at where they are from; {instead} we look at their statistics.”
McVay would like to see change in the KJCCC is just giving out 30 baseball scholarships. At the moment, there are 25 baseball scholarships and the remainder of the team are on an academic scholarship. In the spring 2019, McVay plans on rostering 28 to 30 players and red shirting the rest of his players.